Introduction to Modern Humanities

Over the course of many years I have amassed information
on various individuals and groups. The quest was to find a recorded link between
Sir Oswald and Lady Birley of Charleston Manor and the Bloomsbury Group that
were based nearby at Charleston Farmhouse. This was the spark of interest that
set me off on years of research although I did not realise the time it would
require when I began.

It was my fortune to know a family retainer of Sir Oswald and Lady Birley, a Mr
John Lambert, their Chauffeur, who recounted the past to me over many months.
What surprised me was that I had never heard of the couple who had played a
leading role in the arts of the time, from painting to opera they had been an
integral part of its development in their day, but only their friends and
neighbours seemed to be recorded for posterity and so the search to prove the
connection commenced.

As I began to know more about my chosen subjects I realised just what a
remarkable group they were, also that the groupings were much more complex and
fluid than modern representation would suggest. The circle of who knew who is
vast once you start to look beyond the work, look at who they were not what they
did, and a whole new picture of the past begins to be revealed.

It is not my intention to judge those included on the site in any way. How they
lived the work they did I will leave for others to judge, in my eyes they were
all fascinating individuals who had strengths and weaknesses just the same as
other mortals. What interests me is the interaction between them all, the family
links that most books never even mention, sometimes this link with the gifted of
the day runs over several generations in the same family but you have to put in
many hours of reading and research before the link is exposed.

This site is not intended to generate income or charge in any way for the
information included in it. As my struggle to understand the complicated friend
and family structure of my chosen groups continued I realised that it may help
others to share the little I have learnt over the years.

When this search began the Internet did not exist, and the search was a private
quest so I cannot account for the source of all the data acquired over time, I
have moved house on numerous occasions and have had access to a number of
different libraries etc over the years making tracking the source of the data
more of a task than the quest itself.

Modern life requires that I work full time in order to live, this has slowed
down my research in recent years so I am grateful to anyone who may wish to
contact me with any constructive comments or amendments.

I wish to record my thanks to a dear friend who has build this site for me and
gives me encouragement and support to go on.